Vinyl: The True Music Medium

How does one start to explain why vinyl is the best music format there is for true music lovers. Cd's have their convenience, as do mp3's but with these mediums you lose so many things that make the music great.
Quality
The first thing i have to say about vinyl is that the music quality is better than cd(yes Cathal, better), and far better than mp3, i know everyone who rambles on about vinyl talks about the warmth and the crackle, buts its true ffs, it sounds better because it feels more real, its analog the medium that music is made in and it just seems to lose something in the digitising, maybe the digital rendering doesn't cover the full audible spectrum, I don't know, I suck at physics as some of you may know.
Artwork
The next best thing is that you get the full effect of the artwork, your tiney-tiny cd jewel case can't really contain a beautiful piece of artwork in its own right without diminishing it somewhat, The Beatles - Abbey Road for example, a beautiful iconic image, but on the cd you can't analyse it in any real detail. Whereas with vinyl you can read the car registration and make out facial expressions in the background. And of course mp3 loses you the whole artwork experience entirely. I know you can google and find any image you want, but its in no way the same.
Experience
The experience of playing a record is akin to being back to when it was the principle medium, the album can be divided into the distinct sides each like a chapter in a book or the movement of a symphony. Having to get up and flip the record is not to be seen as effort but as audience participation, you only move to the next chapter when you are ready to do so, in your own time.
The other important aspect of the experience is that of wandering the record shops in search of something new, a very relaxing and enjoyable experience once you get into it, there are plenty of second hand records around and available all over the place.
Turntabilism
Another beautiful aspect of the finer medium is the fact that it has given birth to at the very least one genre of its own, turntabilism, this which has given hip-hop its roots which which to flourish and grow into one of the largest genres in modern popular music, without the records & turntables, hip-hop could have turned out very differently, it would probably have been just as dependent on guitars as many other genres are.
Keeping it Real
You can't buy vinyl records in the supermarket, they can't be churned out by by someone with a computer or sold b some terrible band who've got the money to record, but don't have the talent to get noticed. This allows vinyl to maintain that certain special something, a certain quality in what you are getting, its not pirated or churned out for free with some magazine as a sampler, but its the real thing.
Homesick
I really think that this nearly lost musical medium will never die, it has survived all previous usurpers of the throne, 8-tracks and tapes have dies out but vinyl powers on as the medium of true fans of music. It remain's the main thing that i miss from Home, not having anywhere to put it in my flat i unfortunately can't move it to Dublin with me. Someday I'll have the room.
I hope this encourages a few of you to consider rediscovering vinyl(most of you are old enough to remember a time before cd's surely)

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Tom Dunne has dedicated part of his show this week to the beauty of vinyl, unfortunately I only caught the last 45 minutes of the Wednesday show & I'll be at work tomorrow evening when the last show of the week is on. Luckily I caught the Smiths Singles, 3 in a row is not to be sniffed at.